Qatar Air to fly to Nagpur, Ahmedabad by year-end

Qatar Airways plans to start daily flights to Nagpur and Ahmedabad by the year end. Qatar is one of several airlines which have strengthened air network with India.

The daily service to the two cities will mark the seventh and eighth Indian destinations for the Airways, Akbar Al Baker, Chief Executive of Qatar Airways was quoted as saying by the Gulf News.

Earlier this year, Etihad Airways marked India as its top focus and announced plans for additional frequencies to busy routes such as Delhi and Mumbai.

It also added new routes to Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram in June and said it also planned to begin flying to Bangalore, Chennai and Hyderabad.

"Currently

Etihad flies to four Indian destinations and ideally we would like to double this in the next few years in order to satisfy the huge demand from Indian customers across Etihad's flight network," Etihad CEO James Hogan said earlier this year.

On October 28, Emirates will operate a new route to Ahmedabad, marking its ninth gateway into India. The route will be operated in two and three-class configurations using the A330-200 and Boeing 777-200 aircraft, which the airline said were both popular choices for the airline's existing Indian network.

In 2006, the Dubai-based airline launched three new routes to India, including Thiruvananthapuram, Kolkata and Bangalore.